The centenary of a church is a significant anniversary. Tracey Lewis, Minister of Trinity-Henleaze URC tells the story of their celebrations and where it has led them:

 

2007 was the year we turned 100 and we wanted to celebrate.  The church was planted amongst fields and park land, before neighbouring houses were built to form what is now the community of Henleaze. So, 100 year later, we thought we should celebrate with our long-standing neighbours.

 

We arranged four ‘Community Conversation Evenings’ and issued an open invitation, well advertised, to the first evening asking “Is God Green?” The chairs in church were moved (!) so that people could sit informally around tables .... and we waited, nervously!

To our delight sixty people turned up – around half not Church people! This was obviously an issue that people wanted to talk about.

 

Whilst we had an invited speaker at our first meeting, for our follow-up we decided to simply talk to one another and to stay with questions of climate change and environmental care – particularly thinking about how we could encourage one another and make a difference locally.

 

These conversations led to the establishing of a local “Sustainable Henleaze” group. Two years later Sustainable Henleaze has become a community forum around environmental issues in its own right run by local people ... the church being involved as a partner and still being the place for meetings.

 

Sustainable Henleaze is open to all and almost every meeting someone new turns up. It now has working groups getting involved in issues of Waste and Recycling, Energy, Transport and Food. Sometimes speakers are invited to help us explore issues – often we simply talk with one another, share concern and knowledge and find the encouragement we need to act for a more sustainable future.

 

As for the Church – we are now 102! We have had great conversations! We have made many new friends in our neighbourhood and been reminded that we are planted in this place to grow with the community.